Tracks for toys, including model cars and model trains, are widely used to have toys follow a course. Often the tracks are simultaneously used to supply toys with power or to control a toy's movement along the track. One of the most popular version of toy tracks is that used for slot cars, where vehicles are guided by, powered through, and controlled via a slot or groove in the track on which they run. Tracks are also widely used for toy trains, from simple wooden toy train tracks to a complex variety of scales and gauges used for model train tracks. In other toys, molded plastic channels are used as a track for guiding small racecars around a course and through loops. Yet other toys use metal or plastic tubes and various other materials to construct tracks in two or three dimensions.
Most toy tracks are sectional, with specific pieces like straights and turns that may be connected to form a course. However, so-called routed tracks, with the entire course made from one or a few pieces, are also sometimes used. While they do not offer the flexibility of reconstructing new courses found in sectional tracks, tend to be more expensive, and often require permanent setup, such routed tracks allow a consistent and smooth surface often used for racing and eliminate common problems when powering vehicles via the track (e.g., voltage drops) or when controlling vehicles via the track (e.g., connectivity problems).
Tracks for mobile robots come in various forms, such as rails or grooves, lines painted on the ground, or wires embedded in the ground. Rails and grooves are often used to mechanically guide a mobile robot's wheels. Painted lines are used by so-called line following robots, typically by using a vision sensor like a camera to detect the position of the line in an image. Wires embedded in the ground are used in some industrial applications, where mobile robots typically detect their presence using induction.